1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital watches, clocks and similar timepieces that are traditionally operated with multiple control buttons. More particularly, the invention provides a new system of enhanced control buttons that alleviates or eliminates much of the difficulties that have been experienced in operating timepieces having conventional control buttons.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional digital timepieces, e.g. wrist watches, are generally provided with multiple control buttons located around, and in some cases atop, the watch case. These buttons are usually operated by pressing them into the case to perform control functions such as illuminating the time display at night, accessing setting modes for real and alarm times, retrieving calendar dates, other stored information or messages, etc. The buttons are sometimes identified by word names in adjacent locations, or some or all of the buttons are not named, so that written operating instructions have to be consulted to perform the corresponding functions. Many users have complained about the complexity and difficulty of operating digital timepieces with such conventional control buttons.
Other types of prior art digital timepieces are characterized as operating in non-traditional display modes, such as quadribalanced, balanced, enhanced quadribalanced and unidirectional segmented. These systems are disclosed in several issued patents, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,271,497, 4,627,737, 6,215,736 and 6,584,041, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
These timepieces were designed to operate with a single setting crown, instead of buttons, thereby eliminating many of the problems of conventional control buttons. In addition to omission of buttons, the single setting crown embodied the functional principle of singularity. That is to say, forward and reverse twists of the crown in the case, and similar twists with the crown pulled axially out of the case, provided four singular operating positions each of which could be used to perform a single, or single type of, function which could be easily learned, remembered and performed without having to consult written instructions.
For example, in one design, repeated forward twists with the crown in the case would turn the night light on and off. Repeated reverse twists would activate and deactivate the alarm time setting mode, as well as the alarm sound when it would become audible at the set time. Pulling the crown out of the case without preactivation would immediately enter the real time setting mode, and with preactivation into the alarm setting mode. Thereafter, repeated reverse twists would select and flash each real time, alarm time and calendar functions, while repeated forward twists would advance the values of each such function to the desired value. U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,823 discloses such a crown, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The new system of control buttons provided by the present invention achieves the advantage of singularity for each button, like the single setting crown described above. This is especially important for the single button that is devoted to preactivating the alarm setting mode, entering such mode to set the alarm time, then returning to real time and terminating the alarm sound when it becomes audible at the set alarm time.